


Empty Rooms Tell Stories

by The_Curious_Wonderer



Category: Homestuck
Genre: And not just shipping walls, Gen, Nepeta paints, She can do other stuff too, everywhere
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2017-11-25 17:39:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 7,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/641361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Curious_Wonderer/pseuds/The_Curious_Wonderer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nepeta likes to use the empty rooms of the asteroid as canvases. Just because she has a shipping wall, doesn't mean it's the only thing she ever draws. And they all find her, eventually.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Red and Blue

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little thought that popped into my head. Because, seriously, her art skills can't be limited to people. Anyway, comment or kudos, tell me what you think, please. Especially if you have an idea of what someone can find her painting.  
> :33

"Sollux!"

Nepeta's voice echoed through the hallway that you had just turned down, and you stop for a second so she could catch up. She does, and after catching her breath, spoke.

"Sollux, can you do your psionic thing, please?"

You frown at her. "Nepeta, it'th not thomething to be taken lightly and uthed for fun."

"Please, Sollux?" She begs. "Just a tiny spark, purrretty please?"

You pause for a moment, taking in her large pleading eyes and quivering lower lip. The very picture of adorable sadness. "Fine," you sigh, bringing up sparks of red and blue to dance between your fingertips. She studies them intently.

"Umm, Nepeta?" You try, letting the power die. She gives you a beaming smile.

"Thanks, Sollux!" She yells as she turns and races down the corridor.

"But-" you call out, but she is already gone. "What did she need to thee it for?" You murmur to yourself.

You shrug. Whatever the reason, she is long gone now. You'll just have to track her down and ask her later.

:33 :33 :33 :33 :33

In the long boring time that followed, You really couldn't push the matter out of your mind.

You had returned to the lab, listened to Karkat rant, talked to Feferi for a while, and fixed Vriska's computer, not once, not twice, but three separate times. You are pretty sure she was blowing up pieces inside on purpose, just to call you over and waste more of your time.

You sigh and look toward the door, wondering yet again why Nepeta had been so insistent on seeing your psionic powers.

Finally, someone taps you on your shoulder.

"What do you want," you ask, turning around to see Terezi standing there, red glasses glinting.

"The smell of your curiosity is overwhelming, even from across the room," she complains. "Whatever the heck it is, just go already. I can hardly smell anything except you." Having said her piece, she turns around and saunters back to her computer.

You just sigh again, frustrated this time. Making a decision, you get up and looked around (yeah, like they'd actually try to stop you), before leaving the room, entering once again the hallway where you had last seen the possibly-slightly autistic cat girl.

Ambling slowly, you take no real interest in your path, only stopping to check inside random rooms to see if she was there. Finally, you hear sounds coming from a cracked doorway.

Cautiously you approach, not knowing what to expect, until finally you can peek through the door. And what you can see amazes you. 

Every wall you can see is covered in red and blue.

A rose, left forgotten on the side of a stream. Sunset fading into a darkening sky. Simple splashes that mixed to form a splotchy purple. The walls were coated, and you can see Nepeta on top of a box, working on two charged bolts of lightning, both different colors and neither truly natural.

You suppose you had gasped, because the next thing you know, Nepeta's right by you, biting her lip and looking anxious.

You turn toward her and say, quite honestly, "Thith ith beautiful, Nepeta."

Her cheeks flush olive and she mumbles something that sounds an awful lot like "It's not THAT good..." but you just shake your head.

"It'th amathing, Nepeta. You are really good at thith."

She glances back toward the colors on the wall. "Well, you pawsitively can't have great art without having great inspurrration." She grins, and you smile.

"You know, I've heard that it'th the artist, and not the thubject of the art, Nepeta." You say, and she smiles. You glance back around the room and smirk.

"But having inthpiration like me doethn't hurt."

She laughs and then pushes you out, saying something about having to finish it, but in the days afterwards, when she has moved on to other rooms, you come back and sit in this room and marvel at the beauty made with something as simple as two colors.


	2. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was really interesting to write. Hope you enjoy.

You don't see things normally anymore.

You are actually quite fine with this, because all of your robotic extensions more than make up for it, and you can basically sense any movement in a ten foot radius around your person. But there are sometimes when you wish your entire range of vision wasn't staring out of a three by one inch screen.

Like when there is some thing in the hallway you don't notice. Since it doesn't move, you don't sense it, and therefore aren't aware of it. If you aren't aware of it, you almost always end up tripping over it. Not like that would ever do much to your robotic body, but still. It's embarrassing to trip and fall over things.

Or when your eye screens didn't show the whole computer screen. That was just annoying in its own right. And yes, you could just connect with the computer, but still.

But right now you are not really as frustrated by the latter, seeing as how you just tripped over something in the hallway.

Aggravated, you reach down and pull up- a paint brush?

Frowning, you stare around, making sure to check the floor. Aha. A small paint splatter leading down the hallway.

You take a step forward, ready to get to the bottom of this mystery, but you are called back to the lab by Karkat for a team meeting.

The first thing you notice is that you seem to have been the last to arrive. Then, doing a quick head count, you realize that you are not. Nepeta is still missing.

You all stand around for a few minutes, and Karkat is just about to start his (boring) leaderly speech with or without her, when she runs in.  
She is, suspiciously, paint-splattered, and a paintbrush is sticking out of one pocket. You decide to speak to her about this later.

Karkat finally starts his rant and you tune out, only listening to the minimum amount you can while still getting the point.

:33 :33 :33 :33 :33

When the rant ends, you turn to speak to Nepeta, but she is already gone, and you barely turn in time to see her blue tail whisk out the door.

Looking back at all the others- yes, of course you are going to follow her.

You take a step out into the hallway, and-

Thump.

Once again, you have tripped, this time slipping through a yellowish splash of paint. OK, now you are angry. Why is she always running around, dropping things and dripping paint that it seems you are the only one to trip on?

Following the trail of drips of paint, you make your way through the meteor. One stop leads you to a bathroom, where she must have washed the paint off, because the trail ends there. It is only luck that you find a few drips of brown paint outside of a storage room filled with boxes. Upon closer inspection, these boxes are full of paint.

You shake your head and leave the room, following the trail that is now brown. It leads you to another room, and you can hear someone moving around, singing inside.

Not wanting to seem TOO impolite, you knock, and the singing stops. A few seconds later, the door opens just wide enough for her to see you.

"Aradia!" She smiles, stepping out into the corridor and closing the door behind herself before you can peek in. "How are you?"

Your scowl lessens slightly. "I've been trying to track you down, Nepeta. I keep tripping over stuff in the hallways."

Her smile fades. "Oh my goodness, are you okay? How are you fureeling? What exactly catpunned?"

Her worrying is unsettling, and now you can't help but feel bad for making her anxious. Then you remember earlier and scowl again.

"It's your paint stuff that I keep tripping over, Nepeta. Brushes and splashes. What exactly are you using them for anyway.?"

Her face brightens up. "Painting, of course! I mean, I'm sorry you keep falling over, so I guess you could see my paintings..." She backtracks. "If you want to, that is."

You shrug, pretending not to care much, but you really are curious about what she's been in such a hurry to work on lately. "Sure."

Maybe, it's just you, but her smile gets a bit wider. She opens the door slowly, and once again you curse the fact that these screens are so small. You can barely see any of the large colorful mass on the opposite wall.

"Come on," she ushers you in quickly, closing the door behind you. Then she flips on the rest of the lights, of which only a few had been on previously.

You stand speechless before all of Alternia.

But not Alternia as you had ever seen it. No, her Alternia was something out of a fairy tale. Two full moons illuminated the night sky, and below it, trolls of all colors and signs intermingled, attending a party of sorts. They walked together, some hand in hand, some just together, not discriminating.

"I always wondered," Nepeta says, and you jump back at her words, having almost forgotten her. "I always wanted to know why blood was so important. Why we couldn't all just get along."

She threw a longing look toward the painting, and Aradia saw a small cluster of twelve trolls, unremarkable except that she knew it was themselves. "I never found my answer."

You place a tentative hand on her shoulder, and she just stares at the painting. And it's right here, right now that you hate being a robot the most, because you being made of metal makes it impossible to cry over what never was.


	3. Under

You are bored.

As in, so glubbing bored you might just take your trident and kill yourself. As in, so bored you might break a hole in the side of this asteroid and kill all of you.

You looked over at Sollux. He was, yet again, fixing Vriska's computer as she hangs over his shoulder. It had to be about the fifth time today, and maybe the twentyth time this week.

You glance over the whole lab.  
Aradia is lecturing Equius about something or other. Terezi is liking her computer screen again- talking to that one human, judging by the red on her screen. Kanaya is helping Tavros up from where he fell about a minute ago. Gamzee is just laying in his horn pile, while Karkat and Eridan have a silent glare fight.

That's when you notice. Nepeta is missing, again. She never seems to be anywhere these days. 

Sigh. It's times like these that you really miss the ocean. The water. Everything about this sucks sometimes.

Just as you are about to get up, Nepeta comes flying in. She seems happier than usual, which isn't saying much, because lately she's been rather despondent. Either that, or missing.

If you had to guess the reason, it would be one of three things; she's got a crush on Karkat who ignores her for Terezi, she is upset about the loss of her lusus, or the fact that we are currently in an asteroid and she cannot hunt like she used to. You are pretty sure it's a mixture of these things.

Nepeta spots you and walks over, a timid smile on her face. "Um, hey, Fefuri."

You grin at her, and at the use of her cat puns. You always did like her, simply because of her unashamed use of puns. "Hey, Nepeta. Did you want something?"

The smile grows just a bit wider and she giggles. "Well, I'm trying to do a painting, but it isn't going well, and, I thought, since you lived in the water... I just wanted some help, to make sure it looked okay."

You turn your head slightly, observing the chaotic room around you. "Deal. Anything to get me out of here."

She beams at you, grabbing your hand and practically dragging you away.

"Thank goodness," she says. "I was kinda worried you'd say no. I mean, you don't really know me, except through the game."

You shake your head. "Actually, you're kind of my favorite at the moment, if only for the reason that you're not arguing with everyone else."

She lets go of your hand and turns to give you a hug, which you return. She wipes away a green tear. "Thanks, Fefuri. That means a lot to me, cause it seems like everybody just forgets about me sometimes."

You just hug her again. "You said you needed my help?" You ask, trying to get back on topic. The previous subject was veering way to close to the pale zone, and Nepeta already has a moirail.

She nods. "Right. Well, I was trying to paint an underwater kind of scene, but it just looks kind of... Wrong, you know? So, I figured you could help me." She looks around. "And here it is! In here," she beckons to you, slipping into a room to the right.

You eagerly follow her, but the room inside stops you once you close the door. 

Your first thought is, 'there's not enough green.'

The entire room has been painted to look under water, and it looks very nice, but not very realistic. It's mainly blue, with purple and green undertones that go well with it. The floor looks like sand, and you smile.

"It's lovely, Nepeta," you begin.

"But?" She prompts.

You give everything one more once-over. "The sand is too bright. We're underwater, so it's obviously going to be wet. The colors are nice, but it needs more green. Also, you should probably put in some fish and plant life."

She grins and grabs a paint brush. "Help me?" She asks.

You accept without another thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this one!


	4. Ship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys I broke my own rule that I made at the start- no shipping wall. Oh well! I like it better this way. Hope you do to!

You are worried.

Nepeta is your moirail. She means the most to you out of any of these trolls, except perhaps Aradia. But lately, she has been distancing herself. Not only from the others, but from you.

You have seen a few of the rooms she has painted over, and they are beautiful. She has true talent. But it is unhealthy for her to be this way.

You know how hard this is for her. She was used to the open fields of Alternia, hunting and role playing the days away. Other than the kills she made for her food, she was innocent.

Then came the game. She was thrust into her land, which seemed so benign, but held true danger. She still won't talk to you about her denizen. All you can gather is that a deal was offered, but she chose to decline.

But you can see how much her heart has broken since then. She is no longer the same sweet Nepeta. She has fought and killed other sentient beings, and it tears at her soul.

You suppose that painting is her way of coping, but it seems to you that she isn't really coping with it, just suppressing it.

Well, as her moirail, it is your duty to help her through this. And you will... As soon as you find her.

:33 :33 :33 :33 :33

You check everywhere. Some rooms have already been done up- beautiful works of art. Most rooms are empty, but that's only because there are more rooms in this asteroid than Nepeta could fill in a sweep, even with her expertise. You find a room completely in red and blue, one of them was filled with random paint splatters that looked haphazard, but you noticed that no color ever touched another blob of the same color. Another gave you the incredible illusion of being underwater, which was rather unsettling when you poked your head in. 

But when you finally found her, it was nothing like what you expected.

Not that you did expect anything, of course, but you had assumed you would find her happily painting, covered in colors and the room no less. Instead, you poked your head into a seemingly empty storage room, sweating profusely and wishing for a towel. 

She was in there, of course, and she was painting, but as she murmured to herself, you heard sadness in her tones.

"Not fair," Nepeta whispered, bringing up one hand to finish Pyrope's glasses. You noticed the portrait of the blind girl was holding hands with another drawing, this one of Vantas.

Ah. That would explain some of the moping. She was still flushed for their leader. It is unexplainable to you why she would like him, as snouty and rude as he is. Also with him hiding his blood...

Finally, she notices she is being watched, and she turns to look at you. Her hair is messier than usual, and her eyes are puffy from the olive tears still leaking down her face. You simply open your arms to her, and she rockets into them, sniffling turning into full out crying.

You circle your arms around her in an odd façade of a hug, making sure you never touch her so as not to hurt her. She buries her head into your shoulder, and you check to make sure the door is closed before gently lowering the both of you to the ground, ending with her in your lap, your hands in her hair scratching as lightly as they can, trying to make her stop crying.

Finally she stops, and you look down at her. She is asleep, and it makes you happy because at least she has dream bubbles of happy memories.

Still holding her in your arms, you carry her to her room, laying her gently in her recuperacoon. Then you return to the room from before, your gaze switching from pairing to pairing, and you smile a little, remembering the large shipping wall she used to maintain in her cave.

As you turn to leave, you stop, and reach for a dab of paint, and leave a message to her that she will find tomorrow.

Dear moirail, don't give up hope. As the rogue of heart, you must still have SOME chance, right? And please, try not to spend so much time alone. I miss having you around. 


	5. Green Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All she wanted was to talk to her friend...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My goodness, this one took forever. I literally could not figure out how to write this, and I'm still not sure I'm happy with it. Ah, well, it's done now. Tell me what you think!

You don't understand.

Your name is Terezi Pyrope, and your life has recently been great. Karkles has actually been paying more attention to you since you got on this asteroid, and if that doesn't work out, there's a human boy who is SOOO cool who you're sure you like better anyway.

Really, the only thing going wrong was that with everything going on, you haven't had the time lately to talk to one of your best friends. You and Nepeta had been really distant lately. You'd like to blame her or someone else for this fact, but that would be a false accusation, because you know this is completely your fault. You've been spending all of your time on the computer, drawing and talking to Dave, and messing with Karkles. It's very fun, yes, but you miss the days when you and Nepeta would role play through entire conversations, talk about problems, and just generally to friend stuff.

But when you start trying to troll her, she, quite predictably, does not respond. This is absolutely ludicrous. 

Frustrated, you lean back in your chair, wondering why she never answers. Now that you think about, you haven't smelled her in this room since the last stupid speech Karkles gave. And after that, she had run off so suddenly, even if you had tried to talk to her, she would have been gone.

You sigh, putting your head in your hands and just sit there, wondering, where she could be. You could try to track her by the myriad of scents that surround you, but by now the whole asteroid is layered in smells. That would never work.

Eventually, you stand up, paying no attention to the trolls around you- you can clearly smell them all- and head to one corner of the room, one where you can smell sweat and blue-raspberry. Equius is Nepeta's moirail, and if anyone knows where she is, it would be him.

"Hey, Equius!"

He turns toward you, and the stench of sweat is almost overwhelming. You try to smile anyway.

"Hrk- Oh. Hello, teal-blood."

You almost laugh at how awkward he sounds. "I was just a bit curious as to whether you've seen your moirail recently. I want to talk to her but I can't find her."

He frowns. "Actually, I have not, since I came across her painting a few days ago. Is there any particular reason you must speak with her?"

His voice is polite, but underneath you can smell his anger, and you frown, wondering why he'd be so upset with you. But you just shrug it off. "I haven't seen her in a while, and I just... Wanted to talk, I guess."

He turned back to his computer. "Try wandering the halls. It was how I found her."

You shake your head, feeling rather snubbed, but don't reply. Instead, you take his advice and move towards the hallway.

Feeling just a bit silly, you start poking your head into rooms, but it's no use. She hasn't been here recently. So you move to another hall, wishing she was there and you could role play trying to find her.

"Redglare searches another hallway fruitlessly, searching for her good friend the Pouncellor." You mumble to yourself, turning a corner. "Every sniff yields only the assurance that she is in the wrong place."

You laugh loudly. Jegus, it feels so great to role play. "Opening the way into another corridor, she smells-" Wait a second. You take a deep sniff and almost faint at the frenzy of colors you smell. Oh, gog, it's so delectable...

Shaking yourself out of it, you realize what you smell must obviously be paint. Equius mentioned something about her painting, didn't he?

But yes, among the mouthwatering array of colors, you find Nepeta's scent, and you smirk. "Redglare has finally found a clue. She stalks through the halls, following the tracks of the missing troll..."

You've haven't even made it to the end of the hallway, when Nepeta's smell gets a lot stronger. She comes around the corner.

"Terezi?" She stops, the paint cans clinking together. You grin at your good luck.

"Nepeta! I was just looking for you!"

She smiles, and opens the paint room door, and you almost fall over at the sudden wave of smells. She closes the door and giggles when she sees you with that dopey smile on your face. "Well, why were you looking for me?"

"We haven't talked in forever," you shrug. "I just wanted to see how you were doing!"

She gives a much weaker smile, and says, "Well, I'm fine, thanks."

It takes you a second. But then you realize: she was lying. You give her a wounded look. "You're lying to me. Come in here."

You open a door that is NOT the paint room door and push her inside, before closing it. "What's wrong, Nepeta?"

"Nothing!" She says, and this time you can detect her anger at you prying, her sadness at something, and... jealousy? Who would she be jealous of? Why?

"We both know you're lying. Come on, you can tell me. Who are you jealous of?"

She takes a deep shuddering breath, and the smell of jealousy heightens. "...Me?" You ask in surprise, and she laughs bitterly, so different from earlier. 

"Yes, you." She says, words lashing out like blows.. "I'm jealous of you. Is that so impossible?"

You lean against the wall feeling a bit weak at this revelation. "But why?"

Her glare softens, and you both know the answer. "Karkat." You whisper, and she nods.

"He likes you," she sniffles. "But I know you don't like him like that. You like the human Dave." 

You look away, wanting to deny it but knowing she'd see through the lie.

"And he doesn't even realize," you say, barely letting the words come out, "that you're flushed for him?"

"No. He knows I like him. He chose you."

Okay, if you hadn't felt like crap before, you did now. You've been flirting with him for days, and she had to deal with her friend basically betraying her, and not even being truly flushed for him.

"I'm sorry..." Your voice dies, and she just turns away. There's nothing you can do to help. She leaves, and you sit down and sniff once, almost jumping in surprise. Aside from the smell of Nepeta and metallic wall, you smell a picture. A beautiful red sun, caught indecisively between rising and setting, and smoke as the world below catches on fire.


	6. Smile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kanaya's getting rather annoyed...

Nepeta is missing again.

This is the first thing that strikes you when you walk into the room. Common though it was for her to be absent, she had been up here for a few minutes or so in the last couple of days. But that does not change the fact that Nepeta is, yet again, gone.

You sigh. And you had been hoping to talk to her. There is a story you are writing, and you had wondered whether she would care to edit it for you.

No, it is not a trashy rainbow-drinker romance novel.

... Okay, maybe it is.

But now we are getting too far off subject. You had wanted her opinion, because other than Karkat, she is the only other troll really interested in romance, and you would rather not go to your oh-so-fearless leader. He has a tendency to shout, and you don't want the whole asteroid to know.

So you sit down at your computer and prepare for another few hours of insane boredom.

 

:33 :33 :33 :33 :33

 

Eventually, you sit around long enough to have apparently dozed off in your chair, which is where you wake up later, with a rather stiff neck. Nepeta, you observe, is still missing. Oh, well. Perhaps you'll just work on the story a bit more.

You sit quietly for a few minutes with a pen in your hands, put no words flow onto the paper and you sigh in frustration. You've hit a block. It's of no use to write now.

Suddenly, Nepeta is there. You aren't quite sure how you missed her, because her lovely green jacket- though old and going out of style, it was still nice- was absolutely covered in paint. You barely suppress a gasp at the similar state of the rest of her clothing.

But before you can grab her for a word, she bounds off towards Equius, and you don't want to be so rude as to keep her freon meoirail. So you sit again and wait. She does finish chatting with him and is about to walk out the door when you call her back.

"Nepeta!"

She stops and turns to look around, smiling when she sees you running toward her, and you can't help but smile back. She's been so despondent lately...

"Hey Kanaya," she says, but there's only a ghost of her usual smile present. "Did you need something?"

You blurt the words out without meaning to. "Your jacket is becoming increasingly dirty, Nepeta, and I was wondering if you planned on changing it anytime soon, as it is really starting to irk me."

She looks about as shocked as you feel about what you just said, and you simultaneously feel like face palming and apologizing. But before you can do either, she just shrugs.

"Sure!" She gives you a half-hearted smile. "But I don't exactly have much to change into..." She gestures to the ruined outfit. "This is pretty much all I have."

You give her a quick once over and shudder. "I'll make you something new if it means you're out of that monstrosity."

She giggles and nods to you, and you grab her wrist and lead her to a small room that you have converted into a sewing room. She immediately takes of the coat and it pools to the floor, one side olive and the other splattered.

You start thinking. "Alright, what do we want it to look like?"

"Ooh! Ooh!" She shouts, excited. Just a second!"

She races out of the room leaving you bewildered until she comes back with four colors of paint- black, brown, blue, and her customary green.

"Like this!" She says, dipping a finger in, then bringing it up to the wall. She does a quick picture of a green and blue dress with a brown coat and black slippers. "Just like this!" She turns to you, smiling.

You take a moment to judge her idea. It's not bad, but there's definitely room for improvement.

You finally shake your head. "Maybe, Nepeta. But I was thinking something more like this."

You trail your fingers through the paint and draw for her a green and black blouse, darker blue pants, and brown shoes.

She squeals, but cuts off in the middle and frowns.

"But I can't hunt in that! It's too nice!"

"You can't hunt in other one, either," you point out, and she pouts.

"Yeah," she agrees. "So I guess I need some pants or shorts."

You nod and draw the blue pants again, but this time the shirt is brown with her sign on it in green. The black shoes turn into slip on flats, and she nods seriously. 

"That would probably work!" 

You both agree, and you immediately start working, and when you finally present it to her sometime much later, she beams, and the smile looks real.

And you realize you never showed her that book, but you're okay with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it! Leave a kudos or comment please! They make me write faster. ;)


	7. Lives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vriska is bored, and decides pushing a certain cat girl off the deep end might be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, guys. I think I suck at Vriska. Actually, I have come to realize that the people I've saved for last are the people I have the hardest time writing. Oh, well, I guess I'll just suck it up and write. Also, this one just seems really short. Sorry.

You are utterly, so completely bored.

You toss your head back and spin around in your chair, but that only takes a moment of your time. And you briefly think of trolling John, but decide not to. Bothering Tavros is another option to consider, but he's talking to Equius, and you guess it's probably about his new legs.

Sigh.

You spin around a few more times, trying to see if it would change something, but no. You are still bored as hell.

Finally you get so bored that you decide you're going to bother Tavros anyway, but then you see Sollux. He's looking about as bored as you, and there's a bug (that you put) on your computer that you've been meaning to have him look at.

"Captor," you say, walking over and leaning on his desk space. He shoots you a glare.

"Not right now, Vk."

Gog, he's so annoying. Shortening their names while typing? Completely understandable. But in real life, it kind of makes you want to punch him in the face.

Okay, it REALLY makes you want to punch him in the face.

But you hold back. "There's a bug on my computer."

The disdain in his stare is tangible. "I thaid not now."

"Fine," you say breezily, as if it didn't bother you at all. But when he turns back to his computer, you seethe. 

Jegus, you hate that stupid lisp of his. And the way he acts like you mean nothing. Seriously, it's not like you actually planted the bug in your- Oh, wait, yes you did. Nevermind.

You sigh again, back to being bored, and you can see Tavros using his new legs, so you decide to mess with him a bit. Soon, he's falling down the stairs, and you're sniggering quietly.

But the all-encompassing boredom is back before you know it. Unable to sit any longer, you spring up out of your chair, and start walking. You have no destination in mind, but you're okay with that. So you let your feet take control.

A sudden thought hits you. Lately, you've heard people saying things about Nepeta. She's been painting her stupid pictures everywhere, apparently. So, you decide to go on a hunt, to find the stupid cat girl.

She's not in her room, that much is obvious. So you go back to wandering the halls, hoping to happen upon her by chance.

By the time you find her, you're rather aggravated. Your feet are feeling sore and you just want to sit down, but you set out to find her, and you will. And you do.

She's painting, of course. All over the walls, pictures of different planets she visited during their game, of all the various imps and other nasties you had worked so hard to beat.

"Why the fuck would you want to be drawing those things?" You drawl lazily. To your disappointment, she doesn't even flinch.

"I want to remember them."

Her voice is quiet, but so is the room, so the words are clear. You snort. "Again, why the fuck would you do something like that?"

She turns and looks at you, brows furrowed and a tiny scowl on her face. "It was- and still is- a big part of my life, Vriska. Why wouldn't I?"

You shake your head. "They were the bad guys, Leijon. Why do they matter? Why would you waste time on hindrances and obstacles?"

She hisses. "They were alive, Vriska. Sentient beings." She looks down at her hand and unsheathes her claw, and you know she's picturing the blood she once wiped off of them. "And I killed some of them, for no reason except that they were in my way."

"So?" You lean against the wall, sighing exasperatedly. "Why does that matter?"

"Because-" she cuts off, and for a moment you think she has no answer. But she continues.

"I guess it wouldn't matter much to you, what with all of the trolls you've killed." She puts her claws away. "But before the game, I only ever killed for food. Because I needed it to survive. And even then it was only small things, like field-beasts. They don't think, not really. They don't learn and know things.

"But the imps, ogres, liches? They were really, truly alive. They knew, and they died. I took lives that actually meant something, Vriska. I don't think you understand that."

You stare at her, not responding. She is right about you not understanding, but then again, you've lived like this your whole life, killing trolls for your lusus and then underlings for the game. 

She sighs and turns back to her painting, and you get angry. She isn't even going to wait for a reply? You can't just dump that on someone and then leave them to stew in it. Your upset now, and she deserves whatever you decide.

Well, you decide on just one last parting jab. 

"Their lives mean nothing, Leijon. Toughen up and see the truth."

And as you close the door, smirking, you hear a big slimy splat, as if she just took a handful of paint and threw it at the door you just left through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it! Leave a kudos or a comment :)


	8. Cave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat goes looking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh, you have no idea how sorry I am. I had the hugest block, and then when I was ready to write, no Internet. Stupid reasons, I know, and I don't feel like this chapter makes up for it at all, but here you go. Chapter eight, everybody.

"Where the fuck is Leijon?"

You are frustrated beyond belief. Stupid autistic kitty cat shipper girl. You've been trying to round everybody up, trying to get them all to pay attention, to let them know INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT THINGS, but NOOOOO! Somebody decided to play fucking hide and go seek!

You started with her big, sweaty creep of a moirail, who gave you a scathing glare and said some shit about looking through the corridors. Forget that. You don't have time for that. So you asked around.

Apparently, all she's been doing for the entire time in this fucking asteroid is painting. Peixes wouldn't shut up about some sort of underwater thing, probably hive sick. Terezi was very vague on the subject, saying she found her the other day, but not much else. Sollux wouldn't stop ranting about how wonderful the colors red and blue are together. 

You try following each of their directions- not very fucking helpful, thanks a whole fucking lot- but all that accomplishes is to get you snared deeper and deeper into the intricate maze of corridors and hallways that make up the whole meteor. You stumbled across her room a while back, but it looks abandoned, as if she hasn't used it the entire time. 

But right now, you are fucking pissed. Your feet are tired, your head hurts, and all you want to do grab a good romance movie and watch it for a while to calm down, but no. Apparently, nice, relaxing things aren't allowed on the S.S. Stupid Fucking Meteor.

You stop for a moment and contemplate banging your head against the wall until you die of starvation or you break your think pan. Then you hear a sound. You're standing at a four way meetup of halls, but you are pretty sure it came from the one of to your left. It was only a faint sound, like a door closing or opening, but it was all you have heard in about half an hour.

You start slowly down the way, checking every room. Holy fucking Jegus, does this place have a lot of rooms. You are so fucking fed up with doors.

You grab another door handle and push it open. You step in expecting the sharp tint of metal that everything is made of, but stop short. 

Your eyes are met with warm brown everywhere, a dirt and rock mixture that makes it look like-

Oh. A cave. Duh, she lived in a cave. On one wall you see a giant cat, her lusus. On another is a grid that just might be an unfinished one of her infamous shipping walls. But then you look into a corner, and there she is.

You remember vaguely that Kanaya said something about new clothes, but even if they were new, she fell asleep by a can of paint she had knocked over. It was all over her. 

You look around the room again. It somehow feels wrong to be in here, as if you've invaded her privacy. Which is fucking stupid, seeing as how it's just a room in the gogdamn meteor. But you back out without waking her up. You wouldn't want to get paint on your hands shaking her awake anyways.


	9. Splatter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eridan wanders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! I have no excuses, being gone as long as I was. I completely forgot about this story. But now that I've remembered, I will finish it. Sorry to all of you I kept waiting.

Looking around, you can't help but feel a little forgotten.

Before the game, you were mostly happy. You had a kismesis, a moirail- even if it was dysfunctional- and a purpose to your life, killing to feed Fef's lusus. But SGRUB had pretty much flushed all of that down the load gaper, and now on this meteor, you have nothing to do except brood.

"Oh, Sollux!"

You resist cringing just barely as you watch her talk to him, giggling, being happy. You hate this. You hate Sollux. If you didn't love her so much, you would hate her, too.

But you can't.

It's finally enough, watching her grab his hand and smile, and you just get up and start walking. Anywhere, as long as it's away from here, you think. 

The hallways are all long and empty, and you end up getting lost in the depths. There are entire floors that (as far and you know) nobody has even touched on this meteor, so you don't know if anybody will find you.

You're tired and starving, and you slump against a wall, resigning yourself to dying quietly without anyone realizing. You don't want to go back to the main room, even if you knew how to get there. You're angry, and upset, you feel like crying sometimes but mostly you just feel empty.

And then Nep trips over you.

She goes flying, drops a paint can on your foot, and spills it on you, and you grimace in disgust, but you can't muster anything up to yell or even scold her. You settle for a halfhearted glare, as she starts trying to apologize.

"Eridan, I'm sorry, I didn't see-" She trails off, looking at you. Fuck. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fuckin' fine," you mutter, trying to wipe the paint off, but it just smears. It's at least a purplish hue close to yours, not yellow or cerulean or any other obnoxious shade.

She just stands there, looking up at you, and it almost unnerves you. But you shrug to yourself. She's always been weird.

"Come with me," she says suddenly, and you don't have any reason not to. You follow her around a few corners, down a few halls and then she pulls you into a room. It's blank, but the ground is littered with cans.

"This is my next project," Nep says quietly, "but maybe it should be yours."

"Wwhat even is it?" You question, and she gives you a small grin. It almost feels friendly.

She bends over undoes a lid, and then scoops a bright lemon paint into her hands. With one quick motion she lobs it into the wall, and he hears the squish more than he sees the splatter. "Therapeutic," she answers, eyes gleaming.

Again, you've got no reason not to. So you pick a can at random, pry the lid off, and then soak your hands in the bright magenta. You drag one hand over the wall, but it doesn't feel right, so you wind back and release the way she did.

You watch it hit this time, watch the spray and the spread of it and the way it drips down after a moment. And for a second, you don't feel so empty. So you do it again. And again. And again.

You don't realize Nep is gone until you finish with that first can, but you shrug it off. She gave you the room, the project. 

You just open up another one and keep going.


	10. White

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tavros ends up in a sticky situation.

It's weird, having legs. You've been sitting down for so long that standing feels wrong, like a joke that someone has played before. Really, with the sudden height increase you've become very clumsy, it's no wonder you fell down those stairs. You should have known. Equius even warned you, bro, he told you.

After that disastrous fuckup, you don't want to stay in the main room where everyone is pretty openly ogling your shiny new appendages. No, you want to walk around, get a feel for being mobile. So you do. 

The hallways are long and empty, dark shadows in the corner and the faint smell of mold and paint everywhere. It sucks pretty bad, truth be told, and you get lost pretty easily. Nobody knows where anything is, because they only really take the transportalizers. You grin, imagining finding the library, which remained the largest mystery. Nobody even knew which floor it was on, and no one dared leave it to find out. You come across a stairwell and decide up is the way to go.

This time, you go slow. You only fall twice, and not even that far.

You wander for what feels like hours, but when you check your watch it's only been one, and this is when you start to consider turning around. All of the doors you've tried so far have been empty, or full of boxes. It starts feeling hopeless.

Then you find a room with a transportalizer. You're lost anyway, so you go ahead and step on, and it whisks you away.

There's a startled yelp as you appear, and then, something's hit your head, and it's dark-

Your eyes open veeeery slowly, your head pounding. You rub at your eyes and check out the sticky feeling on the back of your head, which also lingers on your back, coating your shirt. Your fingers come away... white?

"Tavros!" Nepeta tacklepounces you, and your head hits the floor again, pounding harder. "Oh! I'm so sorry!"

She helps you up, and you notice the dried white paint on her hands.

"Nepeta!" You smile, happy to see a friend. "H- how long have I been, uh, you know..."

You gesture at the floor, a pile of blankets that she must have put you on. 

"Not fur long," she promises. Her face lights up, a bright smile. "When did Equius give you the legs?"

"Just a little while ago," you assure her. "I was, uh, out walking when I found..." You trail off, looking around the room.

She's painted all of your lusii.

You see Tinker Bull on one wall, playfully being batted at by who you know to be Pounce de Leon, and you see Vriska's hideous Spidrmom beside a mass of writhing tentacles that you assume is Feferi's eldritch parent. You look back at Nepeta quickly, realizing that you might not have been supposed to see it. She fidgets.

"Do you like it?" She asks, and you relax. "I'm sorry if it brings up bad memories, I just wanted to make Pounce, and there was so much white paint..."

"It's awesome," you tell her sincerely. "And I can see what you mean about too much paint." Aside from the one that hit you, you can see two other white paint buckets, mostly full, and two empty ones.

She squeaks. "Oh, your clothes! Here, let's get back so you can get that off of you..."

She ushers you out the door and you follow her (at least someone seems to know their way around this rock) but not without one last glance back at her paintings. 

And then you close the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. Loooong time no post. Sorry for the wait you guys, but I am happy to announce that I will finish this story at the end of the week!


End file.
